Equal Pay Day: 10 Powerful Quotes From Women About Why We Should Be Paid The Same As Men

The 10 November 2016 is Equal Pay Day, aka women start working for free until the end of the calendar year because we earn less than men.

Equal Pay Day is calculated using the mean average full-time gender pay gap, which is currently at 13.9%.

Yippee.

This year’s Equal Pay Day falls one day later than last years’, meaning the pay gap is closing – but at a snail’s pace. If we keep going at this rate, it will take more than 60 years to gain parity.

According to The Fawcett Society, the reasons for the pay gap are plentiful including differences in caring responsibilities; clustering in low skilled and low paid work, the qualifications and skills women acquire; and outright discrimination.

Sam Smethers, Fawcett Society chief executive said in a statement: “A root cause of the gender pay gap is that we don’t value the work done by women.

“As we mark EPD this year we are focusing on the fundamental question of who and what we value and asking why it is that we don’t value women and the work they do – paid or unpaid. Equal value goes to the heart of the fight for pay equality, because the reality is that if it is a sector dominated by women the pay will be lower.”

Here are 10 powerful quotes from famous women on why we need to close that gender pay gap.

Beyonce

Getty Images

“…unless women and men both say this is unacceptable, things will not change. Men have to demand that their wives, daughters, mothers, and sisters earn more. Equality will be achieved when men and women are granted equal pay and equal respect.”

Sienna Miller

Getty Images

“It was a play with just two of us onstage and I was offered less than half of what he was going to be paid. If it was two men, it wouldn’t probably happen. Sad, but I walked away. The only way is to make a stand.”

Venus Williams

Getty Images

“Imagine you’re a little girl. You’re growing up. You practice as hard as you can, with girls, with boys. You have a dream. You fight, you work, you sacrifice to get to this stage. You work as hard as anyone you know. And then you get to this stage, and you’re told you’re not the same as a boy. Almost as good, but not quite the same. Think how devastating and demoralizing that could be.”

Amy Poehler

Getty Images

“It is never overreacting to ask for what you want and need.”

Ellen Page

Getty Images

“When a politician is against equal pay for women I think it begs the question should they be a politician?”

Gwyneth Paltrow

Getty Images

“Your salary is a way to quantify what you’re worth. If men are being paid a lot more doing the same thing, it feels shitty.”

Viola Davis

Getty Images

“What are you telling your daughter when she grows up? ‘You’ve got to just understand that you’re a girl. You have a vagina. So that’s not as valuable’.”

Charlize Theron

Getty Images

“Girls need to know that being a feminist is a good thing. It doesn’t mean that you hate men, it means equal rights. If you’re doing the same job, you should be compensated and treated in the same way.”

Maria Shriver

Getty Images

“When we pay women less than men we’re telling women their work isn’t as valuable. We’re all equally valuable. And we should be paid equally.”

Emma Watson

Getty Images

“The reality is that if we do nothing it will take 75 years, or for me to be nearly a hundred before women can expect to be paid the same as men for the same work.”